Listening skills by Nahid Esfandiari
Approaches to learning and teaching listening Listening within an environmentalist approach This assumption stemmed from the environmentalist approach to language learning, which considered that learning a language was a mechanical process based on a stimulus-response pattern . In such an approach, listeners’ stimulus ''consisted in hearing L2 spoken words and the ''response ''involved identifying and organizing those words into sentences. Thus, listeners’ main role was simply based on the recognition and discrimination of sounds rather than the understanding of what they were listening to .In fact, apart from learning how to discriminate sounds and pronunciation aspects such as intonation patterns, sentence stress and rhythm, little importance was granted to listening under this view since it “was simply taken for granted Consequently, it was assumed that just by repeating, imitating and memorizing what listeners heard, listening comprehension took place. These environmentalist considerations about learning to listen resulted in the Audiolingual teaching methodology. This instructional approach emphasized the practice of listening by engaging learners in a series of exercises that focused on pronunciation drills, memorization of prefabricated . patterns and imitation of dialogues '''Listening within an innatist approach' listeners’ role also changed from merely recognizing sounds to actively participating in the comprehension process through the use of mental strategies that were necessary for them to understand what they were listening to. Consequently, it was assumed that for listening comprehension to take place, the primary condition was to understand language rather than simply repeat, imitate and memorize .The mentalistic aspects underlying this innatist view to learning to listen were adopted by a series of educators who developed teaching methodologies based on what Rost has called initial listening ''or ''listening first (i.e., listening should be the first aspect to be tackled in the language classroom). Listening within an interactionist approach By the late 1970s, the role of listening assumed greater importance due to the interactionist approach to language learning . it was claimed that listening should focus on a whole piece of discourse rather than listening to single words or short phrases spoken in isolation . a more dynamic and interactive process of meaning creation during the listening event was now emphasized under two main views of comprehension . On the .one hand, the information processing ''view of listening claimed that comprehension of a given message only occurred when it was internally reproduced in the listeners’ mind. Such a view included two comprehension models: 1) the Perception, Parsing and Utilization model the Identify, Search, File and Use model which followed a sequential order of input, perception, recognition, and understanding stages .On the other hand, the ''constructivist ''view of listening emphasized the fact that listeners did not merely receive and process meaning, but rather constructed such meaning according to their own purposes for listening as well as their own prior knowledge. The schema theory proposed by Rumelhart . Schemata can be of two types: ''content schemata and formal schemata ''The former includes topic familiarity, cultural knowledge and previous experience with a particular field. Thus, if listeners are familiar with the given topic they are listening to, their content schemata can be activated and, consequently, comprehension becomes much easier. The latter, formal schemata, involves knowledge about discourse forms, rhetorical conventions as well as the structural organization of different text types, such as an academic lecture. As can be implied from this interactionist view, since the 1980s listening has been considered as a primary vehicle for language learning, achieving a status of significant and central importance in both language learning and language teaching fields It has been acknowledged that listening is a complex, social and interactive process in which “the listener is actively engaged in constructing meaning from a variety of contexts and input sources '''Teaching listening within a communicative competence framework' .1. Discourse competence the core of the proposed framework of communicative competence is the listening skill since it is the manifestation of interpreting spoken discourse and a way of manifesting the rest of the components. Discourse competence implies an understanding of how language operates at a level above the sentence. It involves knowledge of discourse features such as markers, coherence and cohesion as well as formal schemata in relation to the particular purpose and situational context of the spoken text. listeners play an active role in which activation from the rest of the components included in the proposed framework (i.e., linguistic, pragmatic, intercultural and strategic) is necessary to achieve overall communicative competence. .2. Linguistic competence includes all the elements of the linguistic system such as aspects concerning grammar, phonology and vocabulary Knowledge of these features set at the bottom level of the listening process is necessary for listeners to decode a given spoken text., listeners’ grammatical knowledge enables them to apply the rules of morphology and syntax to recognize the inflections on words as well as understand whether the sentences being heard are cohesively and coherently well formed ' ' .3. Pragmatic competence Pragmatic competence involves an understanding of the function or illocutionary force of a spoken utterance in a given situation, as well as the sociopragmatic factors necessary to recognize not just what that utterance says, in linguistic terms, but also what it is meant by it. Thus, in order to interpret the speaker’s actual intended meaning when producing a particular utterance, listeners need to be aware of the situational and participant variables as well as politeness issues implied in such utterance. participant and politeness issues such as status, social distance and the degree of imposition involved in the delivery of the spoken message also play an important role for listeners’ interpretation of such message. .4. Intercultural competence Intercultural competence implies having knowledge of both cultural and non-verbal communicative factors in order to appropriately interpret a given spoken text. The presence of cultural references is something inherent in any piece of discourse the knowledge of non-verbal means of communication, such as body language, facial expressions or eye contact, also plays an important role in the appropriate interpretation of a given spoken text. Listeners’ awareness of those elements will provide them with important clues that enable them to improve their communicative ability when listening. .5. Strategic competence This competence involves the mastery of both communication and learning strategies that will allow listeners to successfully construct meaning from oral input. Thus, knowledge of different learning strategies, which have been classified as cognitive, metacognitive and socio-affective and the ability to use them effectively has been considered of particular importance in L2 listening. four key areas in which research has provided insights into the teaching of L2 listening. Area 1: Accessibility of input Area 2: Top down processing Area 3: Bottom up processing Area 4: Listener status Accessibility of input .1. Functions of input .2. Factors that affect quality of input Relevance Difficulty Authenticity .3. Research questions Top down processing Top down processing –activating background knowledge and expectations through lexical access– guides the listening process and provides connection with higher level reasoning. .1. Activating schemata .2. Lexical access .3. Research questions Bottom up processing Training in bottom up processing is an essential element in listening comprehension. Although influence of the L1 may prevent efficient bottom up processing (metrical segmentation and word recognition), specific training will promote better listening. .1. Components of bottom up processing Feature detection Metrical segmentation .2. Research questions Listener status The listener’s perceived status influences comprehension, participation, and value of input for language acquisition. Engagement by the L2 user –assumption of an “active listening” role –promotes acquisition of listening skills and strategies. .1. Analyzing listener problems in discourse .2. Strategy instruction .3. Research questions Materials .1. Authentic or non-authentic material? .2. Other criteria for materials selection Needs analysis Motivation Level of difficulty Learning strategies for listening? Concept Principles that should underlie all listening comprehension courses Types of instruction Development of a strategy-based listening course The need for methodological change .1. Learner responsibility .2. Authenticity .3. Task-based learning .4. Intercultural competence .5. Changes in the way English is used worldwide A proposed listening syllabus - Becoming a good listener - Helping students to create their own listening texts and tasks - Microskills (aspects of the grammatical knowledge mentioned in the figure above) - Adapting published materials so that they contain more of the “features” mentioned in Section 5 above - Telephoning - Listening projects An interactive model of listening comprehension (Brown) Listening comprehension is the psychomotor process of receiving sound waves through the ear and transmitting nerve impulses to the brain. What makes listening difficult? Clustering Redundancy Reduced forms Performance variables Colloquial language Rate of delivery Stress,rhythm,and intonation Interaction Types of classroom listening performance Reactive Intensive Responsive Selective Extensive Interactive Principles for teaching listening skills -Include a focus on listening in an integrated-skills course -Use techniques that are intrinsically motivating -Utilize authentic language and contexts -carefully consider the form of listeners'responses -Encourage the development of listening strategies -Include both bottom-up and top-down listening techniques.